Description: The European Ocean Observing and Forecasting System (EOOFS) plays a pivotal role in understanding, monitoring, forecasting, and managing the complex dynamics and resources of Europe's Seas. It serves as a critical interdisciplinary system for addressing a myriad of challenges, from climate change impacts to marine resources management. However, to ensure its continued effectiveness, it is essential to identify and address the gaps within this system and provide actionable recommendations for improvements at short- and long-term. Therefore, this document serves as a baseline that can guide the funders and supporters of the EOOFS, as well as the various stakeholders directly or indirectly related to the EOOFS, towards the gaps that hinder better monitoring and prediction of various ocean phenomena, along the ocean observing value chain. The main identified gaps are related to spatial and temporal coverage of data and products of the EOOFS, the data integration and accessibility by various types of users, the uncertainties of projections, the technological challenges, as well as to the engagement of various actors and the communication of results and services to them. The main recommendations to be taken into consideration for addressing all highlighted gaps are detailed in the report for every phenomenon and component of the ocean value chain. These recommendations are not provided just to satisfy the academic interest of the EOOFS community, however, they may have profound implications for multiple sectors and the society as a whole, if taken into consideration. This is due to the fact that the EOOFS is essential for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, in improving the efficiency of the marine resources’ management, in enhancing the resilience of marine and coastal ecosystems as well as coastal cities and infrastructures against disasters and extreme events, for shipping and navigation safety, and for the scientific advancements and innovations of Europe in the field of marine science that serves the society. We propose a scoring approach that can evaluate the EOOFS readiness level (RL) in monitoring ocean phenomena, on a regular basis and in a systematic way. We have demonstrated the usefulness of this approach by implementing it based on our assessment and the feedback of the EOOFS community. The main results clearly show that the EOOFS has “Fitness for Purpose” readiness levels (RL 7) in the three main pillars of the value chain (Input, Process, and Output) only for one ocean phenomenon, while 83% of ocean phenomena have RLs varying from 1 (Idea) to 4 (Trial). A deeper analysis of the scoring results reflects that the EOOFS major gaps are predominantly concentrated in two of its three pillars: the coordination and observational elements (Process) and data management and information products (Output) (Figure 1). In a changing world that is affecting all aspects of European lives, it is crucial to significantly invest and support the EOOFS to better monitor and accurately predict the European Seas, and provide sustained services that can help businesses and improve the resilience of communities and resources.

Description: Identification of local and regional impacts of oxygen, heat and pH related “Extreme Marine Events”: Ocean model data products are overlaid with existing marine biological datasets to identify sensitive areas and organism vulnerabilities.

Description: Identification of local and regional impacts of oxygen, heat and pH related “Extreme Marine Events”: Ocean model data products are overlaid with existing marine biological datasets to identify sensitive areas and organism vulnerabilities.

Description: The EuroSea project is improving the coordination of the European ocean observing and forecasting system to strengthen its capability of tacking the societal challenges related to ocean health, climate change, mitigation of ocean-related natural hazards, and the sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystem services in the Blue Economy. The scientific excellence of the project is based on its better integration, assimilation, coordination and governance of methods, practices, and instruments to collect fit-for-purpose ocean data and the development of innovative tools and solutions to manage some natural coastal risks and support more efficiently fisheries and aquaculture. The societal impact of the research and innovation activities carried out by the EuroSea consortium is enabled through the responsible research and innovation (RRI) policy concept implemented throughout the project progress development and, in particular, in the demonstrators work packages and in those activities focused on communication, dissemination, exploitation and legacy. This report summarizes how the six articulations of the RRI approach were applied so far in the EuroSea project. It also offers some recommendations to boost the societal benefits provided by inclusivity, equality, ethics, transparency and collaborative co-design and co-creation in the research and innovation process applied to ocean observing. Now, and even more in the future, it is necessary to multiply the opportunities to share knowledge and expertise among all transdisciplinary actors to be engaged in improving the European and global ocean observing and forecasting. Moreover, the emerging critical problems affecting the ocean require an increased public involvement through open access to ocean information, effective communication and dissemination of research findings, more diffuse ocean literacy and collective mobilisation. Only these factors seem to be able to establish the global common responsibility necessary to enhance the ocean sustainability, as advocated by the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development supporting the achievement of the SDG 14 in the UN Agenda 2030.

Description: The purpose of this deliverable is to describe and highlight specificities of the observing networks involved in Eurosea and to display a list of main data management points done at European level in comparison to what exists at international level.

Description: Best practices for eulerian observatories